Thursday, October 01, 2009

The members of the mission team are excited about the next trip to Lui (Nov. 22-Dec. 4). The Missouri part of the team met last Wednesday for the first time and will meet all day Saturday, November 7, to prepare further. The Blackmore Vale Deanery [in the Diocese of Salisbury, Church of England] part of the team also plans to meet next week, and we hope they can join our team by live video chat on November 7th for a little while.

The Companion Diocese Relationship Committee has sought to emphasize that the Lui relationship is about relationship as much as – and perhaps more than – financial support. The next mission to Lui is all about relationship.

We have written before about the Rev. Anne Kelsey and the art project to children in Lunjini, Lanyi, Kediba, Buagyi, and Mideh. This is the keynote project of the mission, and we yearn for your support.

Evelyn Smith and Sam Christy are retired primary teachers (and Sam was a principal). Debbie Smith is an administrator for adult education and hopes to continue working with adult educators. Several of the missioners have gifts that can support the children and teachers.

Deb Goldfeder and Susan Naylor are nurses. They hope to pursue parish nursing at Lui Hospital, in parishes, with the Mothers’ Union, with the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS), and with the health ministry of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS). Deb has been researching parish nursing in Africa, identified an international curriculum, and gotten credentials to teach it to people in Lui.

Dan Handschy, Anne Kelsey, Susan Naylor, and Bishop Wayne Smith are all ordained people. The clergy of Lui have asked our team to lead pastors’ conferences, and our clergy are working with the Lui clergy to shape these conferences.

Marc Vanacht is an international agriculture consultant. He hopes to consult on farming in Lui with Robin Denny (an American Episcopal missionary serving the Episcopal Church of Sudan who blogs at Growing in Mission), with the ECS agricultural team, and with GoSS.

Our tri-link partners from Salisbury Diocese bring additional skills. Anne Powell is a project administrator in a university social work department, and Warren Ingham-Barrow is a regional sales manager for a restaurant chain. They should both have very helpful administrative/managerial skills that can be put to good use in Lui.

All the missioners – both lay and ordained – have gifts that might contribute across several of these initiatives, as they are committed Christians, and many of them will work in a variety of contexts.

We expect that most of the missioners will travel to the schools in the five parishes where Anne Kelsey will be doing art with children between 6 and 12 years old. It is our hope that she may be assisted by the Rev. Stephen Dokolo, who spent two years in seminary in Missouri. While Anne carries out the art project, other missioners will meet with primary school teachers, local pastors, health care providers, and farmers.

In the course of the visit, some of our missioners will be conferring with the Lui leadership on matters of administration, management, and finance. We also hope to help Lui leaders develop the website the Diocese of Bradford created for Lui.

We are working closely with Lui’s diocesan leaders to shape and refine the plans for the November-December trip.

Doug, we have another team going in November, and I can put you in touch with them. I don't post my e-address on the blog, but if you reply here with your phone # and e-address, I will receive it via my e-mail, will not post it to the blog, but will get in touch with you and share your contact info with our mission team leader.

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About Me

I'm a progressive Episcopalian raised in the South and now (thanks to a job change) living in the conservative Midwest. I worship at Grace Episcopal Church in Jefferson City. I love the Episcopal Church, which rescued me from a life of wandering meaningless and gave me a way to explore my faith and belief in God.
On any given topic, I am prone to yammer-on way too long. Sometimes I ponder way more than I should.
A blog-friend said that I demonstrate a "muscled love for our Church." I hope I can live up to that.
And right now I'm pondering Blogger's challenge to define myself in 1200 characters.